Forum Flash | The beauty of his beasts

In this Saturday, May 15, 2004 file photo Ray Harryhausen visits the Empire State Building in New York. Ray Harryhausen, a special effects master whose sword-fighting skeletons, six-tentacled octopus, and other fantastical creations were adored by film lovers and admired by industry heavyweights, has died. He was 92. Biographer and longtime friend Tony Dalton confirmed that Harryhausen died Tuesday May 7, 2013 at London's Hammersmith Hospital, where the special effects titan had been receiving treatment for about a week. (AP Photo/Mike Appleton, File)

The beauty of his beasts

Chances are, most of the movie fans streaming into multiplexes throughout the land to give "Iron Man 3" an almost record-setting opening weekend didn't know of a fellow named Ray Harryhausen. Why should they? The movie magic he created for such films as "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" and "Jason and the Argonauts" had happened decades ago.

But the zippy special effects of "Iron Man" and other state-of-the-current-animated-art films owe a huge debt to Mr. Harryhausen, who died at age 92 on Tuesday. Before computer-generated effects jazzed up the movies, stop-motion models - like the ones created by Mr. Harryhausen - did the trick, bringing gods and monsters to life with his complicated, painstaking work.

Mr. Harryhausen himself was inspired by the magic of movies, specifically the stop-motion photography of King Kong in the brilliant 1933 film. The boy who saw that movie became the man who helped bring "Mighty Joe Young" to life 15 years later. He was the king of the movie beasts in the 1950s and 1960s, scaring the bejeebers out of moviegoers with harpies, hydra, a giant octopus and a huge, city-chomping lizard. And let's not forget his sword-wielding skeleton fighters.